<p>Yes, well, one of my original points was that I am from a town of 9,000 and no larger cities within 60 miles so total isolation might not be my favorite in college but I think I can handle it, especially if the school is good at providing campus activities. I agree these all seem like great schools, and I will be amply lucky if accepted as a transfer.</p>
<p>Danahsu, you may not have a car but, trust me, a lot of your friends will if you go to either Bowdoin or Middlebury and you will probably have lots of opportunities to get off campus. Sorry about the "old timer" comment but I thought you were someone who might have gone to college when having a car on campus was strictly regulated and often not allowed at all.</p>
<p>I don't really know any one who has gone to Portland more than once here (although Freeport is a more popular destination, as it is only a bike ride away).</p>
<p>I think the sense of isolation in Midd rather than at Bowdoin comes not from any real isolation in terms of distance from major population centers, but from the surroundings. Middlebury is in the Vermot country side, surrounded by farms as far as the eye can see, accessible by windy farm roads, and adjacent to a quite small town. Bowdoin, on the other hand, is on the populous (relatively speaking) Maine coast, dead center in a medium sized suburban town whose main sustinance does not come from from the college alone, with other towns of similar size or larger in not far in either direction (Bath, Freeport) and smaller towns like Topsham radiating out from it. Middlebury feels more isolated because it is simply in a more isolated part of the country. This may be a plus or a minus, depending on what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Another big difference--size. Middlebury has around 2,400 students, while Bowdoin is under 1,700. Middlebury's campus is also much larger and spread out over gently rolling hills. Bowdoin's campus is fairly compact, centered around a central quad lined with pine trees. Bowdoin's architecture is rather eclectic, ranging from early 19th-century Georgian brick structures to a modern, 16-story tower. Middlebury's architecture is fairly consistent, with limestone, granite, and marble buildings designed in the old New England mill style.</p>
<p>Wellesley's campus is also stretched across a large piece of land, its gorgeous no doubt, but classrooms seem far from housing--compared to other schools.</p>
<p>I attend Wellesley, and I posted in the (much quieter) Wellesley section. Wellesley is rather spread out for its size: 2200. I felt, size-wise, Bowdoin and Wellsley weren't so dissimiliar. Middlebury felt a lot bigger. In general, the academic buildings are in the geographic center of the Wellesley, with the dorms on the perimeters on all sides. The way the campus is set up, you may be close to some things, but far from other corners of campus, it's inevitable, but not a big deal at all. The admissions office recently moved from its nice central location to a lonely corner of campus that makes everything a lot worse than it actually is.</p>
<p>wow all of you make middlebury look like a dead town.
my brother grew up in a big city all his life, and he's going to Midd now, and he's having a blast. Midd owns a mountain, so he's learning to snowboard. Midd has active student body and puts up events all the time. If you've never been there, please do not bash. Ah, and if i may add, he's visited bowdoin, and he said the campus was tiny. At least middlebury is big open campus with nice greens.</p>
<p>oh, one more thing. For both Midd and Bowdoin, don't let comments like "oh we have a big city 30 minutes away (wow that's pretty far BTW)" sway your college decision. Someone above posted s/he wondered if anyone's been to portland more than once. well, same for my brother (he's been to burlington only once and coming from a big city, he realized that "big" in east coast rural area wasn't really big). It just makes you feel secure, but you're not actually going to go to that city much.</p>
<p>Well, my daughter & her friends did go to Portland more than once for entertainment & a change of scenery. They certainly didn't go every weekend or even monthly because they also loved staying on campus & in Brunswick. My daughter & some of her friends also tutored in Portland & they personally didn't think 30 minutes away was far. </p>
<p>I think that Insertnamehere gave a very accurate description of both locations & also agree that Middlebury's location can be a plus or a minus, depending on what one is looking for. </p>
<p>Most of the posters have been to both Middlebury & Bowdoin so they are giving their opinion based on seeing both places. I don't consider giving one's honest opinion based on actually visiting a place as bashing. I assume the original poster is looking for honest opinions & insight, either pro or con, right? Hopefully, she can visit all 3 campuses to decide what is right for her.</p>
<p>Hello123 - those of us who have commented on Middlebury's relative isolation, etc. have all been there. FWIW, my sister had the opposite of your brother. Both our comments and yours are subjective, and one person's isolation and barrenness may be experienced by another person as a great encounter with the outdoors. But for some the sense of isolation is very real and that should not be casually discounted as a factor to be considered in deciding whether to head for Middlebury.</p>
<p>ok i agree. we offer subjective views. </p>
<p>i think to restate what i said better, i should maybe say that don't always go with your first impression about isolation, especially if you're visiting a rural college. Living there and visitng for a day is different.</p>
<p>Sorry to tack on another idea to this thread, but where does Wesleyan fall in comparison to these LACs? (asking primarily b/c Wes accepts a lot of transfers) Its test scores are the highest of the bunch, and one prof named Wes as one of the top-5 LACs and not Bowdoin, Midd, or Wellesley, but from little things I've heard and seen it seems Wesleyan is less academically focused than Wellesley or Bowdoin... Any person mind speculating on how this is explainable?</p>
<p>Hi Ecape,
My daughter, who graduated from Bowdoin, was also accepted at Wesleyan & attended admitted students weekend. Because she chose not to go there, I can't commment in detail about the academics at Wesleyan, but in general, I know Wesleyan has always been known to have top-notch academics. I don't know how important rankings are to you, but in USN&WR, Wesleyan is usually ranked slightly lower than Bowdoin, Midd & Wellesley. But I don't think that necessarily means anything. They are all so closely ranked with each other so I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>As far as atmosphere goes, Wesleyan is known to be the most liberal & artsy of the 4 schools you mentioned. My daughter felt it was too liberal for her, which is why she chose to go to Bowdoin. The campus is nice but she thought Bowdoin's campus was much prettier, also. We thought Middletown, CT was a decent blue-collar town, & had some nice restaurants & enough stores for shopping. Many people don't like Middletown, but we thought it was nicer than we expected. You can walk to downtown from the campus, and there are residential streets that surround the campus where upperclassmen live in off-campus housing. We weren't too impressed with the dining hall & the food. </p>
<p>Hope this is of help to you.</p>
<p>Kwoo is right. Any difference in USNews ranking between Wesleyan and the other three colleges mentioned in this thread has to be based on factors other than academics: Wesleyan is more popular than Wellesley (even among high SAT scoring women) and has a higher percentage of applicants reporting their SAT scores than either of the other two colleges. From its inception, USNews has refused to include any bells and whistles in its annual poll that might accrue to Wesleyan's advantage; things like faculty publications, and racial/ economic diversity (as opposed to a host of things that tilt the scale slightly in favor of smaller colleges like, alumni giving and per student expenditures -- all of which are effected by economy of scale.)</p>
<p>Middlebury is considered more of a drinking school (at least in my book). With Wellesley there is the "all girls thing". I think of Bowdoin as more "outdorsy". Academically, they are comparable schools.</p>
<p>Middlebury is way more outdoorsy than Bowdoin.</p>
<p>I think they're both very outdoorsy! At Bowdoin, 1/3 of students are part of outdoors club.</p>
<p>Both are very outdoorsy but Middlebury is probably more so with the ski slope right there, etc.</p>
<p>Middlebury is extremely outdoorsy, especially in Jan term.
Students there go snowboarding whenever they want. </p>
<p>About drinking: I think any college is big at drinking. It's college (ok, maybe not at Harvard). That being said, my brother said Midd is no party school but fair amount of drinking's involved.</p>
<p>I'm from Maine. Bowdoin is really cool. It's sort of outdoorsy, but it's not really that close to outdoorsy things to do (except the ocean-- the the coast in Brunswick is not at all accessible--it's all private). Bowdoin is strong in science, especially bio. I think Midd. is really focused on the humanities-- especially foreign language and English. Bowdoin's campus is really nice, with lots of historic buildings. I don't know anything about Wellesly-- have you thought about Bate, it's top notch.</p>